Zee-3 co-founder Ste Pickford has hit out against what he believes is the anti-indie stance of the BAFTAs, claiming exorbitant registrations fees are making it a club exclusively for the bigger boys.

Speaking to Spong, Pickford admitted he was surprised Denki's Quarrel had managed to win a Scottish BAFTA, but suggested the Dundee-based studio's success remained something of a rarity.

"I was surprised at the award because BAFTA video game awards aren't usually given to low budget original games with fresh ideas," wrote Pickford.

"Perhaps it's different in Scotland, but from observing the video game BAFTAs south of the border for a few years, I've learned that they go almost exclusively to hit games from big publishers. Usually to very good games, sure, but still almost exclusively to games with big budgets and big sales."

Triple A holes

Pickford went on to claim supposedly 'low budget' films, such as The Kings Speech, can actually triumph over Hollywood blockbusters like Transformers 3 at the BAFTA's film awards.

When it comes to games, however, efforts with less money behind them rarely do as well.

"It's not that we don't have video game equivalents to The King's Speech," he clarified.

"Just like in movies some of the most interesting work is done in small, niche, low budget titles, but these rarely get a look in at the video game BAFTAs.

"The awards appear to be set up to help market successful AAA games, rather than to highlight excellence per se. Award categories are heavily weighted in favour of expensive, lavishly produced games rather than spotlighting great work and talented individuals across the broader spectrum of video game development.

"Increasingly these days the truly innovative and interesting work is happening in the indie scene and in lower budget titles, as the mainstream console industry focuses more and more on safe sequels and glossy updates, but the awards, as they stand, don't recognise this."

How much?

So, why exactly is BAFTA is shunning games from smaller studios, despite their obvious quality?

Pickford highlighted the £475 submission fee as an example of how the organisation aligns itself with the bigger outfits.

"For those of you that don't know how it works, BAFTA judges aren't tasked with seeking out interesting video games to bestow awards upon," he said.

"Games have to be submitted to BAFTA by the developer or publisher, for a fee of around £475 - which includes a £225 registration fee if it's your first time.

"This is a trivial amount to take from the marketing budget of a 'Triple A' console title, but could be a significant sum of money for someone who's self-published a great little iOS title or developed an innovative Flash game, and the fee seems designed to discourage smaller games from becoming involved."

Pickford also criticised the predominance of console based games at the BAFTAs – a hierachy maintained by the remit of the awards themselves.

"The real clue as to why there are platform-specific awards is the fact that the smaller platforms - mobile, browser - have their own award categories, but the big consoles don't," he concluded.

"This is an implicit acknowledgement that all the 'main' awards are effectively reserved for console games, and the extra platform-specific categories are an attempt to give the odd 'little game' a shot at an award. Ghettoising non-console games in other words."

 

[source: Spong]